Fremantle Prepares for Invasion : Australians Earmark $960 Million in Improvements for the 1987 America’s Cup Race

The race doesn’t start until 1987 but already sailors and salesmen are lining up for the America’s Cup, which could be the most expensive, longest-running single sports event in history.

“It’s massive, just massive,” said Warren Pateman, the head of the Western Australian state government’s America’s Cup Tourism Office.

Spending on hotels, roads, marinas and an a new international airline terminal in this remote corner of Australia is expected to reach $960 million, Pateman said.

“There’ll be five luxury liners here to provide accommodation and sightseeing platforms and a press center for 1,000 journalists,” he said. “The Americans are spending up to $200 million to get this cup back.”

What was just a boat race when the schooner America took the silver, pitcher-shaped trophy from the cream of British yachting before an unimpressed Queen Victoria in 1851 has turned into a billion-dollar business.

The Australians took the cup from the New York Yacht Club at Newport, R.I., in 1983, and are determined to cash in on their victory.

“The America’s Cup is essentially a marketplace,” said Alan Bond, the millionaire Perth businessman who won the cup for the Royal Perth Yacht Club. “It’s where very successful men come to be with other very successful men.”

Australia’s victory failed to scuttle America’s yachting pride. Ten U.S. clubs have lodged official challenges to try to regain the cup that means so much Down Under.

“It was like winning a war,” said Noel Robins, director of Royal Perth’s America’s Cup Committee, describing the wave of patriotism that followed the victory by Australia II that ended a 132-year grip on the cup by the United States. “It put a spring in the politicians’ step,”

It also put money in the bank. Federal and state governments in Australia have pledged $39 million to help stage the 1987 defense, Robins said.

The Australian victory, aided by a secret wing-shaped keel on Australia II, has also encouraged the international yachting fraternity. Thirteen clubs from Britain, Canada, France, West Germany, Italy, New Zealand and Sweden have announced they will challenge Australia for the cup.

Millions of dollars in sponsorship has been pledged to the challenging syndicates. They include such names as Gucci, the fashion house; Dassault, the French aircraft manufacturer; and Jaguar, the British automaker.

In Australia, where up to five new boats are being built, sponsorships include banks, airlines and automobile companies.

One bank, Westpac, has announced it will spend $6.5 million to charter one of the world’s largest and most luxurious yacht, the 4,000-ton, 305-foot Sea Goddess, to entertain international clients during the cup races.

The Gucci family also is expected to bring its 206-foot, three-masted schooner, Creole, to Fremantle for the series. Organizers say it will be only one of a fleet of millionaires’ vessels to make the long voyage to the southern Indian Ocean.

The impact on Western Australia, a state four times the size of Texas but with a population of only 1.4 million, is dramatic.

New hotels are sprouting on Perth’s elegant St. Georges Terrace, and in the picturesque port city of Fremantle new restaurants are opening and old buildings are getting face-lifts.

American, Australian and Italian syndicates have laid out millions of dollars for slipways, sail lofts and administrative offices equipped with computers, briefing rooms and workshops on Fremantle’s waterfront.

And, according to Pateman, the Italians have ordered hundreds of cases of wine for their crew and support team.

Robins estimated that each yacht entered will cost its syndicate an average $5.2 million. So far, there are 23 entries.

Each will require a crew and backup team of 50, which could double with representatives of the sponsors of each yacht, Robins said.

The New York Yacht Club has bought the best hotel in Fremantle to house its team. The San Diego syndicate has bought an apartment block.

Enterprising Western Australians are rushing to build and renovate houses in the hope of renting them to tourists.

The Coca-Cola Co. plans to build a new bottling plant to make its slim-waisted green bottles as souvenirs of the challenge series.

One group is planning a school for the children of visiting cup teams and, for $1,000 a month, will teach them in their native languages.

The 1987 cup will be the culmination of almost two years of racing between the challengers. Some crews will spend almost 18 months in Fremantle.

All contestants have to race in an elimination series starting in October, 1986, to decide which boat will challenge the Australians, who are running an elimination series of their own to decide which boat will defend the cup.

The Royal Perth Yacht Club estimates there will be 600 races in the eliminations alone, before the best-of-seven challenge series.

And as a warmup, the world 12-meter championships will be held off Fremantle in February, 1986, in the biggest gathering of 12-meter yachts ever.

Each nation is using the cup as a showcase for its technology, Robins said.

“The U.S. aerospace industry is going all out to help the Americans,” he said. “the American resolve to get it back is massive. But it’s still only a yacht race, not a space race.

“The boats will be faster, the hulls, masts, rigging and design all better. Everyone is looking for a design breakthrough like the wing-keel on Australia II.

“In the end, a crew mistake will make the difference between winning and coming about sixth,”